The Article
by Crystal Drake
Summary: To cheer up Bumi, Sokka decides to create a paper that features article is about the crazy king. Bumi x Jeong Jeong


Title: The Article

Characters: Gaang, Bumi/Jeonj Jeong

Theme: #2 news; letter (30 kisses community on LJ)

Disclaimer: I do not own avatar.

Bumi needed to kill some time while waiting for the others to arrive for the meeting. He picked up a special edition of the hottest news paper in the entire Fire Nation: _The Fiery Sun_**. ** Zuko had brought for Iroh to read.

It was quite a read! It had a teeny tiny article about Avatar Aang, but half of it was focused on Iroh and his influence over the new Fire Lord. It brought a smile to the old king's face to read about his dear friend, Jeong Jeong. Even Piandao had an article. Soon he reached the last page of the paper.

"This is an OUTRAGE!" Bumi shouted after frantically flipping through the pages. He should be in it, at the very least he should have been at least mentioned in the article about Jeong Jeong.

The other customers and the entire staff of the Jasmine Dragon looked at Bumi with concern.

"This paper only has Fire Nation heroes in it," stated Bumi. Then he looked at Pakku for sympathy, "Aren't you disappointed?"

"Why should I be?" Pakku shrugged. He hated going out with Bumi, the senile old king always made a scene. "It's a Fire Nation paper and I have little to do with the Fire Nation."

"Face it old man," Toph said mockingly. "No one from the Fire Nation wants to read how you single-handedly took back Omashu."

It didn't take long for Bumi to come up with a witty comeback for Toph. They had been like that lately, ever since they spared against each other. Now they can't be in the same room without confronting each other. It had really gotten to Bumi, it was why the old man was so edgy in first place. He normally wasn't as nick-picky about such trivial matters.

_*_*_*_

"This is driving me nuts," Zuko complained. He hated dealing with crap on his vacation time.

"I know what you mean," Aang sighed. He felt it was hopeless.

"I've got an idea!" Sokka announced grinning from ear to ear.

Katara rolled her eyes.

"What is it?" Suki asked.

"You remember that Bumi was upset about not having an article in that paper, right?" Sokka explained. "What if we make our own paper and do a feature article on him."

Sokka's latest thing was trying to get into the Order, and while everyone wanted him to achieve his goals, they frequently questioned his methods. Sokka assumed everyone's blank stares were agreement to help him.

"Katara! Suki! You guys write the article. Zuko, you will be in charge of finding us a printer. I will take care of the artwork," Sokka ordered.

"Sokka, what's my job?" Aang asked.

"You take care of Toph," Sokka said with a wink.

_*_*_*_

"So you want me to tell you information for an article?" Bumi asked giddily, his voice cracking with delight. "Where should I start? Maybe when I retook Omashu?"

"Perhaps you could tell us about a different part of your life," Katara suggested wearily. She had already heard that tale enough times she could recite it from memory.

"Perhaps you could tell us how you became King of Omashu?" Suki asked politely.

"I wedded a princess," the old bender mumbled coldly, he thought his tale or retaking Omashu was a lot more interesting.

"Can you tell us more about it?" Suki asked. "Since she was the love of your life and all."

"Not really, it's too boring," Bumi replied. "But I can tell you about the current love of my life, which is a much more interesting story."

"That would be wonderful," Katara smiled. Love stories always interested her.

"Well you girls probably know him," Bumi said with pride. "His name is Jeong Jeong. From the first time I saw him I knew he was the one for me."

Both Suki and Katara leaned in, they were both curious. The idea of love between men interested them, probably more than it should have. Bumi continued his story, telling about his first kiss with the deserter. When he described it his voice was the happiest, sweetest and softest they ever heard. Both girls could tell he truly was in love. Bumi wasn't the type to leave out any details. Both of the girls' cheeks turned various shades of pink as his story continued into more and more intimate detail.

As soon as the old king was done both Katara and Suki got up and thank him for his time. They scurried off as fast as they could to write the article. They had both decided that it should contain a few less 'details'.

"I'm stuck on what to draw," Sokka greeted the girls. "What's the article going to be about?"

"Ugh, it's about his love life," they both replied quickly. Neither one really wanted to talk about it. They quickly went off to find a quieter place to write.

"Excellent, I'll draw that," Sokka said. He started drawing a picture of Bumi with a female companion.

_*_*_*_

After hours of hard work the gang presented Bumi with a copy of the first and only issue of The Lotus Star. His face lit up as he read the article that featured him. It was almost perfect, he felt it was lacking in detail a bit, but the kids weren't professionals. He decided to make sure Jeong Jeong received a copy of it with his morning tea.

_*_*_*_

Jeong Jeong sat down for a nice cup of tea and began reading the paper that had been left for him. His eyes widened and his face turned red as he read it.

"What the meaning of this?" Jeong Jeon demanded, as soon as he tracked down Bumi. He knew the old king was responsible for it. "I thought that we had agreed that our relationship is not to be discussed to the press."

"That was before the war ended," Bumi stated carelessly. "Now that it's over I figured we could and should be open about it."

Bumi noticed that his explination was not calming his lover. He had to fix the problem; he had to do something to cheer his love up.

"Don't you think the picture of us is excellent?" Bumi smiled pointing at the image Sokka drew.

"Since when did I have a womanly figure?" Jeong Jeong asked, irritated.

"Nonsense, that's your mustache," Bumi laughed, feeling foolish for not having noticed the mistake until now. "It's what the kids these days call 'abstract art' or something like that."

Bumi leaned in towards the former Fire Nation Admiral. He puckered his lips and waiting for his lover to kiss him. Jeong Jeong glared at him for a few moments. He felt insulted over the article and kissing Bumi was not going to make it all better. But then he realized that the old king probably just didn't understand. In their relationship he had learned that sometimes it was best just to go with the flow, even if it didn't make sense. Jeong Jeong gave Bumi a quick peck on the lips.


End file.
